Sleepless in Hollywood

Tales From the New Abnormal in the Movie Business

"By the author of the bestseller Hello, He Lied, a veteran producer takes a witty look at the new Hollywood. Lynda Obst returns to dish on the experts, tastemakers, and moguls of today's Hollywood and the movies they make. She describes how the movie business has lost its MO--and is now losing its talent to network and especially cable TV. With the collapse of the DVD market, the movie industry was crippled. The business reacted by producing tentpoles (mega-hits) or tadpoles (which nobody gets a chance to see). Why? Since the majority of their revenue comes from the foreign market, especially China and Russia, studios are no longer dependent on expensive stars or dialogue (i.e. writers). Special effects and 3D replace people. Obst speaks from the front lines. Her subjects are friends, moguls, former employers, mentors, and even relatives, who express their opinions with disarming bluntness and hilarity. Obst combines her experiences with insights from the smartest people in the business. In what Obst calls the New Abnormal (because Hollywood wasn't normal to begin with), studios are paralyzed. Can the movie business be resurrected? Can it once again make the movies that make us laugh, cry, and wish we could own the DVD? Obst is ready"--Provided by publisher.

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While this book does get bogged down in technical details and internecine office politics, it is a pointed insight into how the Hollywood scene has changed and why Hollywood keeps churning out one dreary sequel after another, for example.

Ms. Obst is a woman who managed to survive the various changes in Hollywood while struggling to keep her head above water, move with the shifting attitudes and get her films made. They weren’t always hits but she realized you could learn a lot from flops as well as hits—maybe even more. This is an astute and careful dissection of the Hollywood scene.

The viewing audience is letting the filmmakers know that they’re getting sick and tired of the same old formulaic movies and they will turn their attention elsewhere if they don’t get what they want. With independent films constantly uploaded to the internet via budding geniuses with handheld cameras, we don’t need to settle for the same old stuff. Maybe, just maybe, this book will be a wakeup call to the bigwigs as well as a beacon of hope for the future of film and television.